High Time We Brought Back High Teas

Memories of my childhood growing up in Dulwich are filled with sunny bank holidays and sandwiches. Easter Mondays would be spent running around with my cousins in my Great Grandmother’s garden in Woodwarde Road before tucking into a delicious and elaborate ‘high tea’.

Whilst afternoon teas have become popular again, ‘high teas’ as a tradition are almost lost. Taken later than tea, between 5 and 6 pm, high tea would be a mixture of savoury and sweet items and we children loved it as it was an opportunity for us to exercise some autonomy over what we ate. Plates would be piled high with crumpets, buttered bread (crusts on and crusts off), cold meats, sliced cheeses, salmon - on special occasions - and salad. We would assemble our own sandwiches with glee.

As a family tradition the high tea is ripe for a relaunch, which I am fully supporting, it is the perfect, relaxed way to entertain friends without hours of preparation and minimal waste. Ideal for us hectic hosts!

Each tea was rounded off with cake and I always looked forward to Easter and the delicious Simnel Cake my Great Grandmother would bake.

As a girl my Great Grandmother was in service, the only day off girls like her had, apart from Christmas Day, was Mothering Sunday. They would bake a cake and take it home to their mothers. As Mothering Sunday fell in the middle of Lent the cake would be saved and eaten at Easter. This is my Great Grandmother’s Simnel Cake recipe.

You will need:
Almond paste: 340g ground almonds, 425g caster sugar, 1 large egg, 1 egg yolk, juice of 1 small lemon.

Cake: 170g butter, 170g caster sugar, 3 eggs, 225g plain flour, ½ level teaspoon salt, 1 level teaspoon baking powder, ½ level teaspoon mixed spice, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, 115g sultanas, 115g raisins, 115g currants, 115g chopped mixed peel, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1-2 tablespoons milk. To decorate: 1 egg white, glacé icing made with 3 tablespoons icing sugar and 2 tablespoons warm water, sugar-coated speckled eggs and ribbon.

To make almond paste: mix almonds and sugar, bind to smooth paste with beaten egg, egg yolk and strained lemon juice. Roll out a third of the paste on a board sprinkled with caster sugar, making a round slightly smaller than the cake tin. Wrap remaining paste in foil and leave in a cool place.

To make cake: grease a 20cm round deep cake tin and line with greased greaseproof paper. Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat eggs lightly and add a little at time to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, spice and cinnamon together and stir into mixture. Add dried fruits, peel and lemon juice. Mix to soft consistency with milk.
Spoon half mixture into prepared tin, spread out evenly and tap down firmly to exclude air. Place round of almond paste on top, spoon in remaining cake mixture and smooth top. Bake in a moderately slow oven (160˚) for 2 ¾ hours or until cooked through. Turn out on to cooling rack – remove paper and allow to cool.

To decorate:
Form a third of remaining almond paste into 11 small balls. Roll out rest of paste into a round to cover top of cake. Brush top of cake with beaten egg white, invert cake on to almond paste round and press firmly into place. Turn cake right way up; neaten edges, decorating sides with a fork. Brush with egg white and brown under hot grill. Arrange almond balls in a circle around cake edge. Securing with a little egg white. Brush tops with egg white. Place round of foil in centre of cake to prevent over browning and brown almond balls under hot grill. Remove foil. Flour a little glace icing on middle of cake. Decorate with speckled eggs and tie with a ribbon.

To make glace icing: sift icing sugar into bowl add water gradually and beat with wooden spoon until creamy.

This article appears in the April issues of SE Magazineswww.semagazines.co.uk